The answer to the question ‘How are diamonds made?’ will normally begin with another question: what kind of diamond do you mean? Diamonds can be either natural, or mined diamonds, or man made diamonds. In today’s political climate, many people are opting for the latter option, as there is a negative connotation involving the funding of civil wars and slave labor with mined diamonds.

Natural diamonds are made by the application of heat and pressure to the carbon remains of decayed plant and animal matter over millions of years. The combined effects of heat, pressure and time rearrange the carbon molecules into a particular orientation that gives the gemstone its famous clarity and brilliance. Natural diamonds are then mined, cut by a professional craftsman, and usually placed in an appropriate setting such as a necklace, ring, or bracelet.

Creating artificial, or man made diamonds has long been a goal of scientists. Not only renowned for their beauty and value, diamonds have a hardness that is unique in the mineral world, lending them to many practical applications in science and technology. Man made diamonds begin with small crystals that are artificially hardened and then placed in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chamber.

In the first part of the process, carbon based gasses such as methane are placed in the CVD chamber, where they are bombarded with plasma, or charged particles. This bombardment will result in a ‘carbon rain’ begin brought out of the methane, which will fall on the seed crystal. The carbon atoms in the rain will naturally align themselves with the atoms of the crystal seed, resulting in the formation of a diamond that is virtually indistinguishable from a naturally occurring one. Using this method, scientists have been able to form diamonds that are up to 10mm in diameter and 4.5mm thick.

As a side note, a similar process has been developed to transform a person’s final remains into a gemstone similar to a diamond. In this way, the question of burial or cremation can be avoided altogether, and a loved one can become a beautiful piece of jewellery to be worn proudly, or passed along as a family heirloom